The rebirth of New Jersey’s hard cider industry could be in the hands of a 29-year-old Rutgers University researcher.

Megan Muehlbauer, a scientist at the university’s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, has been testing dozens of varieties of traditional heirloom apples used for hard cider to find ones that can successfully grow in the state.

The new tree crossbred as part of her experiment could start producing crop this year.

She hopes to help new growers interested in expanding the market in New Jersey and farmers with existing orchards to transform their business.

“They don’t look anything like the apples you get at the grocery store,” Muehlbauer, a plant biologist, said of the traditional apples she’s testing. “Their growth habits are different, their look is different, which can make it a challenge for growers.”

Melick's Town Farm owner John Melick stands near apples waiting to be pressed to make cider on January 11, 2019.(Photo11: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com-USA Today Network)

A century ago, traditional apples — the tart, small varietiesMuehlbauer is experimenting with now — flourished in New Jersey and helped make hard cider a booming industry here.

“There were once hundreds or thousands of different apple varieties in this region alone,” said John Melick, owner of the largest apple grower in the state, Melick's Town Farm in Hunterdon County. His family’s farm, passed down 10 generations, may be the oldest, too, at nearly 300 years old.

New Jersey was once the country’s leader in cider production, making 23 percent of U.S. output in 1899. Today, there are four hard cider producers in the state.

“Around the time of Prohibition, there was no use for these apple trees anymore, so they were pushed out,” said Melick, who owns one of the four hard cider producers, under the label Melick’s Hard Cider.

Prohibition advocates burned down some cider orchards, and the government chopped down others, according to the Smithsonian Institution.

The industry didn’t bounce back after Prohibition was repealed — beer took its place.

“Some varieties went out of favor for good reason, but we’re trying to bring back some of the ones that bring those unique characteristics to the hard cider,” Melick said.

While commercial hard ciders are sweetened and flavored, traditional hard ciders are dry, with the tart flavors of the heirloom apples that propelled the state's booming cider industry more than a century ago.

Muehlbauer likened hard cider to wine, in terms of production and taste — no one wants a wine that tastes like grape juice.

A six-pack among cases of Melick's semi-dry hard cider on January 11, 2019, kept in a storage area until they are delivered to local liquor stores. The apples used for the hard cider are grown, pressed, fermented and eventually canned at Melick's Town Farm in Oldwick.(Photo11: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com-USA Today Network)

“I suspect the market will be like the wine industry, where a grower is not only producing the grapes, or apples in this case, but processing and producing the wine,” she said.

Melick, who expanded his farm to produce hard cider five years ago, offers six varietieswith a seventh in the works, he said. Among the traditional apples he uses is the Golden Russet.

"I’m not attempting to compete with those bigger players, like Angry Orchard," Melick said. "They’re not going out blending small batches of these heirloom varieties. It’s a learning process for us. It’s exciting."

New Ark Farms, another Hunterdon County-based hard cider producer, which makes Ironbound Hard Cider, uses the Harrison variety, a once-classic cider apple that got its name from being farmed near Newark and was known to George Washington as yielding the "champagne of ciders," according to the company.

Though harvesting cider apples has been pretty smooth, Melick said, the one issue he often faces is that heirloom apple trees are more disease-prone.

Megan Muehlbauer, the Hunterdon County agent at Rutgers University's New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, has been working on a hard cider apple trial at the Snyder Research and Extension Farm. She hopes to revive the state's hard cider industry.(Photo11: courtesy of Nick Romanenko)

That’s where Muehlbauer comes in as the extension agent for Hunterdon County.

In her research, she’s had luck avoiding diseases using wood from new heirloom varieties and grafting it onto existing Fuji apple trees. Those trees haven’t shown evidence of fire blight, a disease that kills trees in humid and rainy weather, she said.

The new tree she’s tested will start producing this year.

“If I can narrow it down to five varieties that have great yields and can handle disease pressure really well," Muehlbauer said, "I will feel like I have made a contribution to the industry and can help it move forward.’’